The Omnibus Wind Ensemble's interest in Frank Zappa's music dates back to the beginning of the 1980s, almost from their very beginnings. Under the motto "From Mozart to Zappa", which also became the title of their 1st, widely acclaimed CD on the Opus3 label, they have had many of Frank Zappa's compositions in their repertoire over the years.

A sad melancholia that also strangely exudes hopefulness are the juxtaposing emotions expressed by pianist Wayne Horvitz and his Four Plus One Ensemble on this, their second release collectively. The music, composed by Horvitz while spending two months in central Italy, is quite neo-classical and modern chamber in stance and style, but also borrows on film noir, improvised jazz and third stream, electronica and rock musics.

Vivaldi’s Griselda, one of more than twenty operas, is based on a story retold in Boccaccio’s Il decamerone about the testing of Griselda’s patience and virtue by her royal husband through a series of cruel trials. The sense of drama that permeates many of Vivaldi’s more programmatic works, such as the Four Seasons, is very naturally carried over into his operas, especially with the use of so-called ‘simile’ arias, in which an emotional state is compared with various natural phenomena. Several very fine examples can be heard in Griselda, including Costanza’s extraordinary ‘Agitata da due venti’ in Act Two; the text compares love and duty with two contrary winds, and the setting is correspondingly wild, with fierce fioriture and wide leaps.

If the number of compositions written for a specific instrument is any indication of a predilection, then Ferdinand Ries did indeed have a soft place in his heart for the flute. He penned no fewer than six quartets for flute and string trio, a quintet for flute, violin, two violas, and violoncello, a trio for piano, flute and violoncello, and many works for flute and piano - more works than for any other wind instrument. His first Flute Quartet presents itself as a grand, imposing quartet in the affirmative key of C major and contains many surprising elements.

Composer Niels Gade ( 1817-1890) is considered to be the most influential Danish musician of his time. He was also a successful teacher, conductor, violinist, and organist. This release is the second volume in the exploration of Gade’s chamber music, and includes his String Quartet in E minor with extra movements, the first movement of a Piano Trio in B-flat major, and Scherzo in C sharp minor for Piano Quintet. “Even in the intricate texture the individual voices remain transparent; the focus on what is essential is more important than everything experimental. The MidtVest ensemble relies on flowing lines, not on leaden ritardandi, on well-rounded formulations instead of roughly delineated blocks.” (FonoForum of Vol. 1).

Haki R. Madhubuti (born Don Luther Lee on February 23, 1942, in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States) is an African-American author, educator, and poet, as well as a publisher and operator of black-themed bookstore. Madhubuti is a much sought-after poet and lecturer, and has convened workshops and served as guest/keynote speaker at thousands of colleges, universities, libraries and community centers in the U.S. and abroad. The name Haki means "just" or "justice," and Madhubuti means "precise, accurate and dependable," both names deriving from the Swahili language. He changed his name in 1974.